SOCIOECONOMIC AND CULTURAL INCORPORATION AND MARITAL DISRUPTION AMONGMEXICAN-AMERICANS

This article examines how processes of socioeconomic and cultural inco rporation affect marital-disruption patterns among Mexican-origin pers ons in the U.S. in comparison to non-Hispanic whites and African Ameri cans. The results, which are based mainly on recent National Longitudi nal Survey of Youth data, indicate that, once other variables are cont rolled, the correlation of level of education with marital disruption among U.S. native Mexican Americans is negative and similar in level t o that of non-Hispanic whites. However, the correlation of educational level with marital disruption among Mexican immigrants is both positi ve and lower than that of other groups. It is argued that these result s do not support the idea that cultural familism explains Mexican-orig in marital-disruption patterns, nor the idea that segmented assimilati on processes exert influence on marital disruption, but rather the ide a that socioeconomic and cultural incorporation interact in their effe cts on marital variables.